Sri Lankan Prez sets Dec 31 deadline to release all military occupied land in North and East

Colombo, Oct 5 (UNI) Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has set December 31, as deadline to release all the Tamil civilian lands held by the State in the country’s northern and eastern provinces. The President instructed the officials to release all military occupied land in North and East residential Task Force on Development of the Northern and Eastern Provinces before December 31, when they met for the third time on Wednesday at the Parliamentary Complex, the Colombo Page reported. Since the end of the armed conflict in May 2009, a considerable part of private lands were released to the original owners.Mr Sirisena further instructed to prepare a proper time frame to launch the relevant program. Special attention should be given on releasing military occupied buildings and lands belong to schools in the North and East, the President said.Mr Sirisena told them then that more than 85 per cent of the lands held by the military belonging to civilians had been released. However, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) urged that in order to achieve reconciliation and national integration, all lands belonging to the people which are now in the possession of the armed forces should be released without any further delay.UNI XC-JTS SDR 1829